


close your eyes and mend

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Mountain (TV 2004)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Backstory, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Mention of pre canon character death, Romance, fixing bad writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 21:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18600061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Maria finds out the truth about her brother’s death.





	close your eyes and mend

**Author's Note:**

> So when rewatching “The Mountain” for the Be The First Challenge, I was struck, again, by the many many many crimes against writing that this show committed. One of those was Maria’s reaction to when David told her about his part in her brother’s death - your ex lays that on you and tells you that he ran out of town and lied about everything for ten years, the appropriate response is not to kiss him, the appropriate response is drop kick him into the middle of next week and never speak to him again. (As for how they ended the show with them... don’t talk to me.) This is how it would have gone had I been writing! 
> 
> For the weekend challenge - prompts “ Terrify reflective park jagged aback“ I swear, they are all there!

It was a cold, winter night in Boundary, Utah, the snow crunching underneath Maria’s feet as she moved. But that wasn’t why she was cold; the ice in her blood couldn’t purely be blamed on the weather. 

Not when David - her high school sweetheart, her current boyfriend’s brother - was speaking, saying words that made her head spin and her heart pound in her chest. 

“I was there,” he told her. “When Gabriel died. We were racing, he tried to overtake me, it was dark and he didn’t see the turn...” 

Her mind went back, as it always did when she thought of her brother, to that terrible day. Gabe’s bed not slept in, her mother’s worry, her father’s silent concern. The search party and the terrible news and her mother’s scream. Her own grief and confusion because not only did she lose a brother that day, she also lost a boyfriend. 

“My mother slept in his room for two weeks,” she heard herself say. “My father...” Her voice broke off and she lifted her head, looks into his face. It was like looking at a stranger. “And you left...” 

“My grandfather covered it all up,” he told her and it immediately made a sick sort of sense to her. Because of course David Senior would do that for David Junior, of course he would. How many times had she heard people tell David that he was his grandfather’s golden child, his favourite, the one who was like him in more than just name? “He made me go... Maria...”

“I needed you.” Suddenly she was that seventeen year old girl again, the one whose life was crumbling around her. “How could you leave when I needed you the most?” 

“Maria...” 

“I loved you.” Tears were rolling down her face and he stretched out his arms, laid his hands on her shoulder. 

“I loved you too,” he whispered and they leaned in towards one another...

...and in that instant, her brother’s face danced across Maria’s vision. Her little brother, who had idolised David, would have done anything to be like him. The little brother whose death had ruined her family, left them with ten years of unanswered questions, ten years of whys. 

“No!” She pushed his hands off her shoulders, placed her hands on his chest and pushed him away. His back met the door of the wooden cabin behind him with a smack that loosened snow from the eaves. “You lies to me! You lied to everyone for ten years!” Once started, the words wouldn’t stopped, tripped off her tongue, every one a knife to her heart. “Every birthday, every Christmas, every anniversary, we wondered why he was there, why would he go up there alone at night when he knew it was dangerous... and you knew, you knew!” 

“Maria...” David approached her again, hands out, like he was approaching a skittish animal. “I am so sorry...”

She gritted her teeth, shook her head as she gathered up the skirts of the stupid masquerade costume she’d chosen. “I don’t even know you.” 

His voice followed her through the trees as she made her way back to the Carver house. The masquerade ball was beginning to empty out but she still went around the back of the house, rushing up the back stairs, hoping against hope that no-one would see her. Reaching the room that she shared with Will, she dived inside gratefully, closing the door firmly behind her, standing with her back pressed against it for a long moment before her legs began to shake. They didn’t hold her for long and she slid down against the door, dropping her head into her hands and letting the tears come. 

She didn’t know how long she sat there like that before the door handle turned down and the door opened a sliver. “What the-?” Will’s voice came from the other side, confused, and the door moved again as he tried to push it open. She shifted and it moved a fraction, enough that he must have been able to see some of the material of her dress, recognise it for what it was. “Maria? Are you in there?” 

She didn’t speak, couldn’t speak. She could move though, scrabbling to her feet and lurching towards the bathroom. Once the door was free, he pushed it open and in the bathroom mirror she saw him walk into the room, past the still open door, the King Arthur to her Guinevere, reaching up to pull his crown, slightly askew, from his head. “When did you get back?” she heard him ask. “I thought I’d have to search the whole park for you... did David have anything to say for himself?” 

He still sounded angry, and she remembered suddenly the fight that he and his brother had been having, how Will had been so sure that David was being blackmailed by a business rival. The pieces fell into place and the knowledge that someone was using her little brother’s death as leverage in a family feud hit her like a two by four in the stomach. She doubled over, a fresh wave of sobs overtaking her and she heard Will say her name as if from a very long way away. 

Then he said it again, closer this time and when she looked up into the reflective surface of the mirror, she saw him standing in the doorway, jaw slack, eyes wide, plainly taken aback at what he saw. One look at her own face told her why, the sight enough to terrify anyone - face pale, eyes red, tears rolling unchecked down her cheeks. She heard a low moan, the kind a wounded animal might make and it took her a second to realise that she was the one who’d made it. She dropped her head, her whole body shaking so much she could barely stand and Will must have seen that because then he was there beside her, pulling her around to face him, wrapping his arms around her. He was warm where she was cold, strong where she was weak and he held her up as her legs gave out, then lowered them both to the floor. Her hands made fists in the material of his tunic and she sobbed and sobbed until her throat was raw and her breathing was nothing but jagged gasps that physically hurt as they ripped themselves from her throat. 

It might have been minutes until she cried herself out, it might have been hours or days. But when she came back to herself again, her cheek was pressed against Will’s chest, his tunic damp with her tears and smeared with the remnants of her makeup. “I ruined your costume,” she heard herself say, pulling at the material and he scoffed as he caught her hand in his. 

“Screw the costume.” His voice was more gentle than the words would suggest. “What happened to you?” He swallowed hard, his eyes dark. “I can’t believe I’m asking this, but David, did he...” His voice trailed off and it looked like he was rolling words around in his mouth, looked like the words, the very thought of them, was making him ill. “Did he try to...” 

She got it then, what he was afraid of, and she shook her head quickly. “No, no, nothing like that.” Will tilted his head back, his huge sigh of relief still managing to ruffle her hair. “He didn’t touch me.” 

“Okay.” He pulled her tightly against his chest then, pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Okay.” One of his hands moved, cupping her cheek, his thumb sweeping up and down gently. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

Maria knew Will, both as a lover and a friend. She knew how much effort it was taking for him not to demand answers, not to rush in like a bull at a gate, finding solutions for the problem because that was what he was so used to doing. But he couldn’t fix this. No-one could. 

“David was there.” Her voice, even to her own ears, was hoarse. “The night my brother died.” Will’s frown of confusion changed to an expression of shock. “They were racing and Gabe tried to overtake him but it was dark...” She’d been to Tory Canyon so many times looking for answers she could never find. She could imagine the scenario, saw it playing out in her mind as she spoke. She could almost hear the shouts, the roar of the dirt bikes, the screech of brakes, a scream then silence...

She lunged for the toilet as everything that was in her stomach decided to make a sudden reappearance. 

When she finally straightened up, she realised that Will was holding back her hair with one hand, his other resting on her back. Embarrassment flooded her cheeks as she slumped, exhausted, against the wall and Will didn’t say anything as he went to the sink, dampening a washcloth and laying it on the back of her neck before filling a glass with water and handing it to her. 

“You were right. About Dowling having something on David.” Concern for her gave way to disbelief, his jaw dropping open as realisation dawned in his eyes. “They’re using my brother’s death to blackmail him.” She was crying again, silent tears this time. 

“I’ll kill him,” Will muttered. She wasn’t sure who “him” was but she was too worn out to care. 

“What kind of person does that?” She wasn’t sure who she was talking about either. “Lie to the people they love.” All right, maybe she was. “Leave when they needed them most.” 

“I don’t know.” Will’s words were a sigh as he kneeled down beside her, putting his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, letting her head fall against her chest, her eyes suddenly too heavy to keep open. She felt him press a kiss to the top of her head and she drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Come on,” he said, fingers squeezing her shoulder lightly. “Let’s get you to bed.” 

Maria didn’t move, her bones heavy as lead. “You wouldn’t do that,” she murmured, more to herself than him, as sure of that as she was of anything in this world. Almost everything she knew, or thought she knew, might be up in the air, but she knew that Will Carver was the most loyal, most caring person she was ever likely to meet, albeit wrapped up in the package of a grumpy workaholic. 

His fingers reached up, threaded through her hair. “I will always be here for you.” His voice was soft and low, soothing and Maria was very soothed suddenly. She was barely away of Will shifting beside her until she felt him standing, felt herself being lifted up in his arms. She opened her eyes, one arm going around his neck automatically and she must have made some little noise that she wasn’t even aware of because he shushed her, whispering, “It’s okay... I’ve got you.” 

“I know.” She whispered the words into his neck, felt him smile against the top of her head. He carried her easily into the bedroom, as if she weighed nothing more than a feather, placing her gently on the bed and kneeling up behind her, moving around behind her to unzip her dress. He helped her push it to the floor and she reached out blindly, fingers closing around a white t-shirt lying at the end of the bed. 

“That’s, ah...” Will cleared his throat, his lips twitching. “That’s my shirt.” 

Maria looked up at him, didn’t blink. “I know.” 

Will did blink, then he smiled, his hand reaching out and landing warm on her cheek. “Go to sleep,” he whispered. “I’ll be here when you wake up.” 

Nodding, Maria lay down, let him cover her up. Seconds later, she felt him slip in beside her, press his body against hers before pulling her into his arms. “I love you,” she whispered into his shoulder and he tightened his grip in response. 

“I love you too.”


End file.
